Threads of Desire (Spellcraft) - By Stone, Eleri Page 0,27
down her arms despite the heat of the day. Damn. She’d known it was a risk to expose herself but had hoped Lanel would let her be. She didn’t want to have to speak with him again to reassure him that she’d keep her silence. She didn’t want to see him ever again.
“So you blackmailed the guildmaster.” The foolish man was grinning at her. There’d been nothing daring about it. She’d been desperate, not brave. He needn’t look at her like that. “The rule-bound and virtuous Lanel Hasson. What could you possibly have on him?”
“I can’t tell you that.” She would like nothing better than to share this burden, but that simply wasn’t possible. “Let it be, Kal. Please.”
He stopped walking just before they reached the top of the wide stairs leading down to the fountains. Catching her elbow to turn her, he waited for her to meet his gaze. “I would protect you, Ily, even from the guildmaster. It simply might help me to understand why I’m fighting him this time around.”
He meant that—that he would try to protect her—she could see it in his eyes. Touched, she placed her palm to his cheek and stretched up onto her toes to kiss him.
“I left the guild because Lanel Hasson is a venomous spider at the center of a great web who wishes to control everything and everyone around him. That’s all you need to know and you don’t have to worry about me.”
Before he could argue the point, she started down the steps. The worn white stone was smooth beneath the thin soles of her sandals and very hot. A few weeks ago she wouldn’t have hesitated to cool her feet in the water, but it seemed undignified to do so with an aristo. She’d never seen anyone like Kal splashing in the waters. Of course, Kal had his own fountains to splash in if he chose to. Dozens of them.
Before they reached the bottom step, Kal caught her hand and held it as if they were sweethearts. She wondered if he thought of her that way. She didn’t. She couldn’t let herself begin to think like that. He threaded his fingers through hers and looked down at her. “Lanel is an ass. As for controlling? He is master of the most powerful organization in the empire.”
“You think I’m proud.” She’d heard that accusation before, but it hurt coming from Kal, more than she wanted to admit.
“Everyone belongs somewhere...or they should.” He touched the seal on his arm. “Family. House. Emperor. You think the life of an aristo is free of obligation?”
“It’s not the same.” She knew what it was like to be owned, to think first What will my master say if I choose this or that? To always consider how your choice would affect another before you thought of yourself. Lanel had done that to her. He’d raised her, shaped her to be his liasin, a position between servant and wife without even the rights of a concubine. It had choked her magic. In the end, it had gotten to the point where she couldn’t cast even the simplest of weaves. That was what had made her run.
Lost in her own thoughts, she wasn’t certain how long the silence stretched between them. They reached the first fountain and skirted it, walking through silver puddles of sun-warmed water. This one was a small fountain with a steep drop to the level below. No children played here today, just an elderly couple who smiled at them as they passed by. A fistful of flowers lay abandoned on the rim, little purple and white blooms beginning to wilt in the sun. Ily lifted the largest from the pile as they moved toward the shade cast by the cliffs.
They followed the gravel path leading to the lower levels and turned aside when they reached the first of the three large fountains that Risa was famous for. She could hear the sounds of children playing before they turned the corner. She smiled at the sight that greeted her. Young mothers sat on the rim of the fountain while their children played. Grandparents shared the shaded benches. Between the fountain and the children, there was enough water in the air that it seemed cool here even though the sun was shining.
There were no open benches and the rim of the great fountain was soaked with water, so they found a shaded spot to sit down beside a crumbling wall. Weeds sprouted from a